Of Laws and Loyalty
by Nauthiz
Summary: When a marriage law is introduced after the war, Harry must find love or risk his magic. Harry/Susan. Rare pairing meme.


**Written for Kamerreon's Rare Pairing Meme.  
Prompt: Harry/Susan Bones- Post DH, a marriage law comes into effect. Harry must marry or lose his magic and he finds that what he values above all else is loyalty.**

"They're joking right? Has anyone told them April Fools' is still a week and a half away?" Harry asked, looking at the latest Ministerial declaration with rapidly building horror.

"It's not a joke Harry, honestly." Hermione huffed, with a roll of her dark eyes. "The Minister wouldn't joke about something like this. It would be in very bad taste. They have to do something to increase the population again."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, I guess it's kinda logical to create more families, but it's a bit harsh, don't you think? Get married or be a squib? Tough choice." Sarcasm was all but dripping from his words and Harry was glaring now, quite fiercely, at the root of his new problems. One piece of parchment had just altered all his plans._ Wonderful_. According to the new decree, all eligible witches and wizards aged between eighteen and forty were required to be betrothed by the end of the following month. Harry had a little over a month to choose who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with; how was anyone supposed to make that decision? He asked Hermione this, and received nothing more useful than a vague suggestion, "I don't know Harry. Have you thought about the type of qualities you'd like her to have? You could go from there and narrow it down." It was alright for her, Harry acknowledged sullenly, _she_ already had her husband picked out. He gave it a week, tops, before Hermione got fed up of Ron's stuttering attempts at a proposal and did it herself.

Nightfall found Harry locked away in his study at Grimmauld Place, hastily drawing up a list of all witches he'd known in the recent years. Unfortunately for Harry, this was a fairly long list- he'd become quite the popular bachelor since the end of the war. Ginny had decided she'd rather shack up with Michael Corner, apparently they'd _bonded_ or some other such rubbish over their shared experiences during Harry's year of absence, and many witches had taken that as an open invitation. Never mind, clearly Ginny was a bit flighty for a potential wife; Harry would rather have someone stable, someone reliable.

He started with the girls he had known at Hogwarts- Parvati, Lavender, Cho, Hannah, Lisa...the list went on. There were only two Slytherin girls, but he crossed them off immediately. The war had left him paranoid enough without worrying if his in-laws might want him dead. Then he set about erasing the names of people who he knew were already in relationships. Rather alarmingly, that cut out a large majority. He was left with two Ravenclaws, one Gryffindor and three Hufflepuffs. After a bit of rather deep contemplation, Harry decided he wouldn't count the people he'd met through correspondence after the war. He had no desire to marry someone who was likely to spend the majority of their time fawning over him. No, definitely not.

That gave him six potential fiancées. If Harry was honest, that thought alone terrified him, let alone the prospect of actually marrying one of them. He cut it down to five easily, removing one Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, from the list. She had probably changed a great deal since their disastrous date three years ago, but the experience had been harrowing and he didn't want to repeat it. With the sound of giggles echoing in his ears, he crossed off Parvati too. He was down to four.

Hannah Abbott, Lisa Turpin, Susan Bones and Megan Jones.

Harry huffed, throwing down his quill in frustration. Six weeks to find the love of his life and four candidates? No pressure. Hannah and Susan he remembered from the DA, which seemed a lifetime ago to him.

A sudden flare from the fireplace bathed the room in green light as the floo activated and Hermione tumbled through, briskly brushing soot from her robes. "Harry, there you are."

"Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?" Harry replied, rather nonplussed.

"I thought- Ooh what's this?" The squeal of intrigue was disturbingly feminine from Hermione, it reminded him far too much of the Patil twins and Lavender Brown for his liking. She seized the list Harry had spent all evening working on.

"That's pretty much all the women I know who aren't dating, death eaters or completely ditzy. What d'you think?" He chewed nervously on a hangnail, drawing blood.

"Well, it's good. I don't know Jones all that well but the rest are perfectly nice. Hannah Abbott is dating Neville though, didn't you hear? They announced it right after the decree was released, they've been together about a year but they were keeping it quiet."

"Neville and Hannah? Wow, good on him. She's not really my type anyway, I don't think."

Hermione snorted, "Pretty, good natured and loyal isn't your type? _Sure_, Harry."

"Well, it's not really. Ginny was great but those weren't exactly her main qualities...What do you think of Susan though? She's nice, right? We got on well in the DA but I've not seen much of her since. Last I heard she was working at the Ministry." His fingertips were drumming a tattoo on the desk.

"Oh yes, Department of International Magic Cooperation. She's doing really well and she's lovely! She was a Hufflepuff, remember? I think she had a bit of a crush on you in school."

Harry couldn't help but grin at that, a self deprecating smile, "Really? I don't remember that, I think I must've been too focussed on Cho then. Maybe if I'd noticed someone else I wouldn't be in this mess now."

"You were a teenage boy, Harry. It was bound to happen."

Hermione left not long after, leaving Harry to his thoughts, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a girl like Susan. The list was most definitely in her favour, the loyal aspect of her Hufflepuff personality alone outweighed the few petty disadvantages he'd been able to imagine and he resolved to write her first thing in the morning.

Susan's return owl arrived in the early afternoon, graciously accepting Harry's proposition- of dinner, of course. He wasn't quite mad enough to propose marriage to a girl he hadn't seen for six months.

When the time for their date rolled around, Harry found his nerves overwhelming. He had relied on Ron's assessment of his attire (possibly a mistake, but the robes seemed okay to Harry) and fruitlessly tried to flatten his hair. He had arrived at the restaurant with plenty of time to spare, and spent the remaining minutes fidgeting anxiously. That had stopped as soon as he saw Susan smile.

The date, Harry's first in a long time, had gone perfectly. Conversation had run smoothly throughout the night and with every new topic he learned something new about Susan, how interesting she was and just how much they had in common. Inevitably, conversation rolled around to the war. Harry had dreaded that. Susan had lost most of her family to the Death Eaters and many people in the same position were wont to place the blame squarely on his shoulders for not defeating Voldemort sooner. When Harry happened to mention this, Susan was rather fierce (if a little frightening) in her rebuttal.

"But that's ridiculous, Harry! You were barely a teenager then; and if it wasn't for you, who knows how many others might have died. Those people ought to ask themselves what they did to defeat Voldemort. Nothing, is my guess." She huffed angrily. Harry, still quite shocked, found it difficult to note anything other than the beautiful sapphire shade her eyes had darkened to in her anger.

"Thank you. I- that's really...Thank you." Harry stammered hoarsely, barely containing a blush at her strong words.

Susan's face softened almost immediately, "I'm just saying what we all think, Harry. Everyone who knew you at Hogwarts, in the D.A, knew how hard you worked to save us all. Some people are just too narrow-minded to admit it."

It struck Harry that her words, however brief, had somehow managed to lift part of the guilt he'd been hauling around since the end of the war. He'd joined the Aurors in an attempt to appease it somewhat but it had been ever present, until Susan. Hermione had been right, he realised. Good natured and loyal was his type, and he'd found the girl for him.

**Thanks for reading!**


End file.
